Jon and a cute kid!

I am finding out that I can’t remember each day unless I write it out that night for all the experiences for me are so incredible. Will summarize these days. Everyday that Jon arrives at the ARC camp, you immediately hear JON, JON, JON and at… least 7 kids are clambering all over him. HE LOVES IT. Even the toddlers run up to him and try to climb up his leg. He always has 1 child on his hip, 2 others on each leg and the rest crowding around. Because of his athletic background plus living with a PT, he picked up general strengthening exercises quickly and so we hand off the general strengthening patients to him. He works them hard and I have been very proud of what he has done.

One afternoon when we were finished with the ARC camp, LAC notified us that they were handing out supplies to a remote village. We all piled in the back of the truck and off we went. We came upon this village that all their homes were under water for they were by a lake and the lake has risen at least a hundred or more yards, placing all the homes under water. As we entered the village, we saw thatched huts and dozens of naked or half dressed children running after our truck. We had the villagers all line up outside this building and we unloaded about 100 bags of supplies. Each of the village families has a card. They present the card and they get a bag. They then all sit in the building until all have received their supplies. Jon got to hand out the bags as each person came into the building. You should have seen his face—he looked like Santa Claus on Christmas morning. During our handouts, a teenager stole a bag and ran off. The line was immediately shut down and several villagers chased after the boy. No one received further bags until that bag was returned. This was so very interesting to me and it totally made sense for how else can you control people that have so very many basic needs from mobbing. You should have seen the other children and adults marching that young man back and presenting the bag…. After the bag was returned, the others received theirs. While everyone was seated, the camp leader opened one bag and showed what items were in the bag and explained what they were. Among the many items, the villagers totally cheered about a cheap pair of flip-flops and a SMALL saucepan. My group totally lost it when we saw that flip-flops and a small saucepan just was met with such JOY and THANKFULNESS!

After the handouts, a few songs sang and the thanks given, we returned to the truck only to find some villagers yelling at that boy! Carole from LAC said that because that boy stole that bag, he would probably be shunned for a while from the village but also his families card might be torn up until the boy proves himself. Carole said that only the families that contribute to the village, lead decent lives and are good people get to have a card for distribution. Fascinating to me for how else could you encourage people to act decently with no law around except the people…. Fascinating stuff….

Nancy